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A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 





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A SOLDIER OF 
THE LEGION 



BY 



EDWARD MORLAE 




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BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

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COPYRIGHT, I916, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY 
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published June iqib 




PREFACE 

When Sergeant Morlae turned up at 
the Atlantic ofHce and, with his head 
cocked on one side, remarked ingratiat- 
ingly, "I'm told this is the highest- 
toned office in the United States," 
there was nothing to do but to assure 
him he was right and to make him quite 
comfortable while he told his wonder- 
ful story. That story, however, was 
not told consecutively, but in chapters 
as his crowding recollections responded 
to the questions of his interlocutor. It 
was a story, too, which could not be 
told at a sitting, and it was not until 
the evening of the second day that 
Sergeant Morlae recounted the exploit 
which won the Croix de Guerre pinned 
to his chest — a cross which he said, 



PREFACE 



with the sole touch of personal pride 
noticed in three days passed largely in 
his company, had above it not the cop- 
per but the silver clasp. 

Sergeant Morlae is a Dirk Hatter- 
aick of a man to look at, and the edu- 
cation of that beloved pirate was no 
more rugged than his own. His father 
was a Frenchman born who had seen 
service in '70 and won a captain's com- 
mission in the "Terrible Year." After 
the war, Morlae, senior, settled in this 
country and his son was born in Cali- 
fornia. As young Morlae grew up, find- 
ing the family business of contracting 
on a small scale somewhat circum- 
scribed, he sought more hazardous em- 
ployment in active service in the Philip- 
pines and in more than one civilian 
" scrap " in Mexico. It was good train- 
ing. August, 1914, found him again in 



PREFACE 



Los Angeles. For two days his French 
blood mounted as he read the news- 
papers, and on the morning of August 3 
he packed his grip and started for 
Paris to enlist in the Legion. Since he 
had already seen service, he was soon 
made a corporal and later a sergeant. 
Morlae, says a letter from a Harvard 
graduate who served under him in 
those days, was *'an excellent soldier," 
"a strong, efficient, ambitious man," 
though, as the reader of this and letters 
from other Legionaries may infer, he 
was neither sentimental in his methods 
nor supersensitive with his men. Main- 
taining discipline in so motley a crew 
as the Legion is rather a rasping proc- 
ess, and Sergeant Morlae was born 
disqualified for diplomatic service. 
Future reunions of La Legion are like- 
ly to lack the sweet placidity which 

vii 



PREFACE 



wraps the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic on the anniversaries of Chancellors- 
ville and Gettysburg. 

But to the story. The things that 
war is are not often told except in 
generalization or in words of fanciful 
rhetoric. It would be hard to find else- 
where, crammed into a brief narrative, 
so much of the sense of actuaUty — 
that realism made perfect which even 
readers who have known no such ex- 
perience feel instinctively is true. Yet 
the story is not made of horror. The 
essence of its life is the spirit that de- 
lights in peril. The "Soldier of the 
Legion" has in it that spinal thrill 
which has electrified great tales of 
battle since blood was first let and ink 
spilled to celebrate it. 

Ellery Sedgwick. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Soldier Frontispiece ^ 



As THEY SWUNG INTO GOLUMN THE NiGHT BE- 
FORE THE 25th of September i8" 

Americans in the Foreign Legion 38' 

showing type of hand-grenades 

Americans in the Foreign Legion receiving 
News from Home ioo "^ 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGIOT>J 



A SOLDIER OF 
THE LEGION 

I 

One day during the latter part of 
August, 1915, my regiment, the 2^^ 
Etranger (Foreign Legion), passed in 
review before the President of the 
French Republic and the commander- 
in-chief of her armies. General Joffre. 
On that day, after twelve months of 
fighting, the regiment was presented 
by President Poincare with a battle- 
flag. The occasion marked the admis- 
sion of the Legion Etrangere to equal 
footing with the regiments of the line. 
Two months later — it was October 
28 — the remnants of this regiment 
were paraded through the streets of 
Paris, and, with all military honors, 
3 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

this same battle-flag was taken across 
the Seine to the Hotel des Invalides. 
There it was decorated with the cross 
of the Legion of Honor, and, with rev- 
erent ceremony, was placed between 
the flag of the cuirassiers who died at 
Reichshofen and the equally famous 
standard which the Garibaldians bore 
in 1870-71. The flag lives on. The 
regiment has ceased to exist. 

On the battlefield of La Champagne, 
from Souain to the Ferme Navarin, 
from Somme Py to the Butte de Sou- 
ain, the ground is thickly studded 
with low wooden crosses and plain pine 
boards marked with the Mohammedan 
crescent and star. Beside the crosses 
you see bayonets thrust into the 
ground, and dangling from their cross- 
bars little metal disks which months 
ago served their purpose in identify- 
4 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

ing the dead and now mark their 
graves. Many mounds bear no mark 
at all. On others again you see a dozen 
helmets laid in rows, to mark the 
companionship of the dead below in a 
common grave. It is there you will 
find the Legion. 

Of the Legion I can tell you at first- 
hand. It is a story of adventurers, of 
criminals, of fugitives from justice. 
Some of them are drunkards, some 
thieves, and some with the mark of 
Cain upon them find others to keep 
them company. They are men I know 
the worst of. And yet I am proud of 
them — proud of having been one of 
them; very proud of having command- 
ed some of them. 

It is all natural enough. Most men 
who had come to know them as I have 
would feel as I do. You must reckon 

5 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the good with the evil. You must re- 
member their comradeship, their esprit 
de corps, their pathetic eagerness to 
serve France, the sole country which 
has offered them asylum, the country 
which has shown them confidence, 
mothered them, and placed them on an 
equal footing with her own sons. These 
things mean something to a man who 
has led the life of an outcast, and the 
Legionnaires have proved their loyalty 
many times over. At Arras there are 
more than four hundred kilometres of 
trench-line which they have restored 
to France. The Legion has always 
boasted that it never shows its back, 
and the Legion has made good. 

In my own section there were men of 
all races and all nationalities. There 
were Russians and Turks, an Annamite 
and a Hindu. There were Frenchmen 

6 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

from God knows where. There was a 
German, God only knows why. There 
were Bulgars, Serbs, Greeks, negroes, 
an ItaUan, and a Fiji Islander fresh 
from an Oxford education, — a silent 
man of whom it was whispered that 
he had once been an archbishop, — 
three Arabians, and a handful of Amer- 
icans who cared Uttle for the quiet life. 
As Bur-bek-kar, the Arabian bugler, 
used to say in his bad French, *' Ceux 
sont le ra-ta international" — "They're 
the international stew." 

Many of the men I came to know 
well. The Italian, Conti, had been a 
professional bicycle-thief who had 
sUpped quietly into the Legion when 
things got too hot for him. When he 
was killed in Champagne he was serv- 
ing his second enlistment. Doumergue, 
a Frenchman who was a particularly 

7 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

good type of soldier, had absconded 
from Paris with his employer's money 
and had found life in the Legion neces- 
sary to his comfort. A striking figure 
with a black complexion was Voronoflf, 
a Russian prince whose precise antece- 
dents were unknown to his mates. 
Pala was a Parisian '* Apache" and 
looked the part. Every man had left a 
past behind him. But the Americans 
in the Legion were of a different type. 
Some of us who volunteered for the 
war loved fighting, and some of us 
loved France. I was fond of both. 

But even the Americans were not all 
of one stripe. J. J. Casey had been a 
newspaper artist, and Bob Scanlon, a 
burly negro, an artist with his fist in 
the squared ring. Alan Seeger had 
something of the poet in him. Dennis 
Dowd was a lawyer; Edwin Bouligny a 
8 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

lovable adventurer. There was D. W. 
King, the sprig of a well-known fam- 
ily. William Thaw, of Pittsburg, start- 
ed with us, though he joined the Flying 
Corps later on. Then there were James 
Bach, of New York; B. S. Hall, who 
hailed from Kentucky; Professor Oh- 
linger, of Columbia; Phehzot, who had 
shot enough big game in Africa to feed 
the regiment. There were Delpeuch, 
and Capdeveille, and httle Tinkard, 
from New York. Bob Soubiron came, 
I imagine, from the United States in 
general, for he had been a professional 
automobile racer. The Rockwell broth- 
ers, journalists, signed on from Geor- 
gia; and last, though far from least, 
was Friedrich Wilhelm Zinn, from 
Battle Creek, Michigan. 

The rest of the section were old-time 
Legionnaires, most of them serving 





A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

their second enlistment of five years, 
and some their third. All these were 
seasoned soldiers, veterans of many 
battles in Algiers and Morocco. My 
section — complete — numbered sixty. 
Twelve of us survive, and of these 
there are several still in the hospital 
recovering from wounds. Zinn and 
Tinkard lie there with bullets in their 
breasts; Dowd, with his right arm 
nearly severed; Soubiron, shot in the 
leg; BouUgny, with a ball in his stom- 
ach. But BouUgny, Uke many another, 
is an old hand in the hospital. He has 
been there twice before with metal to 
be cut out. Several others lie totally 
incapacitated from wounds, and more 
than half of the section rests quietly 
along the route of the regiment. Seven 
of them are buried at Craonne; two 
more at Ferme Alger, near Rheims. 

I o 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Eighteen of them I saw buried myself 
in Champagne. 

That is the record of the first section 
of Company I. Section III, on the 
night of the first day's fighting in 
Champagne, mustered eight men out 
of the forty-two who had fallen into 
line that morning. Section IV lost 
that day more than half of its effec- 
tives. Section II lost seventeen out of 
thirty-eight. War did its work thor- 
oughly with the Legion. We had the 
place of honor in the attack, and we 
paid for it. 



II 

Two days before the forward move- 
ment began, we were informed by our 
captain of the day and hour set for the 
attack. We were told the exact num- 
ber of field-pieces and heavy guns 
which would support us and the num- 
ber of shells to be fired by each piece. 
Our artillery had orders to place four 
shells per metre per minute along the 
length of the German lines. Our cap- 
tain gave us also very exact informa- 
tion regarding the number of German 
batteries opposed to us. He even told 
us the regimental numbers of the 
Prussian and Saxon regiments which 
were opposite our line. From him we 
learned also that along the whole 
length of our first row of trenches steps 

I 2 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

had been cut into the front bank in 
order to enable us to mount it without 
delay, and that our own barbed-wire 
entanglements, which were immedi- 
ately in front of this trench, had been 
pierced by lanes cut through every two 
metres, so that we might advance 
without the slightest hindrance. 

On the night of September 23, the 
commissioned officers, including the 
colonel of the regiment, entered the 
front lines of trenches, and with stakes 
marked the front to be occupied by our 
regiment during the attack. It was 
like an arrangement for a race. Start- 
ing from the road leading from Souain 
to Vouziers, the officers, after marking 
the spot with a big stake, paced fifteen 
hundred metres to the eastward and 
there marked the extreme right of the 
regiment's position by a second stake. 
13 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Midway between these two a third 
was placed. From the road to the 
stake, the seven hundred and fifty 
metres marked the terrain for Bat- 
tahon C. The other seven hundred 
and fifty metres bearing to the left 
were assigned to Battahon D. Just 
one hundred metres behind these two 
battahons a line was designated for 
Battalion E, which was to move up in 
support. 

My own company formed the front 
line of the extreme left flank of the 
regiment. Our left was to rest on the 
highroad and our front was to run from 
that to a stake marking a precise front- 
age of two hundred metres. From 
these stakes, which marked the ends 
of our line, we were ordered to take a 
course due north, sighting our direc- 
tion by trees and natural objects sev- 
i4 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

eral kilometres in the rear of the Ger- 
man hnes. These were to serve us for 
guides during the advance. After all 
these matters had been explained to us 
at length, other details were taken up 
with the engineers, who were shown 
piles of bridging, ready made in sec- 
tions of planking so that they might 
be readily placed over the German 
trenches and thus permit our guns and 
supply-wagons to cross quickly in the 
wake of our advance. 

The detail was infinite, but every- 
thing was foreseen. Twelve men from 
each company were furnished with 
long knives and grenades. Upon these 
"trench-cleaners," as we called them, 
fell the task of entering the German 
trenches and caves and bomb-proofs, 
and disposing of such of the enemy as 
were still hidden therein after we had 

i5 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

stormed the trench and passed on to 
the other side. All extra shoes, all 
clothing and blankets were turned in 
to the quartermaster, and each man 
was provided with a second canteen of 
water, two days of "iron rations," and 
one hundred and thirty rounds addi- 
tional, making two hundred and fifty 
cartridges per man. The gas-masks 
and mouth-pads were ready; emer- 
gency dressings were inspected, and 
each man ordered to put on clean un- 
derwear and shirts to prevent possible 
infection of the wounds. 

One hour before the time set for the 
advance, we passed the final inspec- 
tion and deposited our last letters with 
the regimental postmaster. Those let- 
ters meant a good deal to all of us and 
they were in our minds during the long 
wait that followed. One man suddenly 

i6 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

began to intone the "Marseillaise." 
Soon every man joined in singing. It 
was a very Anthem of Victory. We 
were ready, eager, and confident: for 
us to-morrow held but one chance — 
Victory. 



Ill 

Slowly the column swung out of 
camp, and slowly and silently, without 
a spoken word of command, it changed 
its direction to the right and straight- 
ened out its length upon the road lead- 
ing to the trenches. It was lo p.m. pre- 
cisely by my watch. The night was 
quite clear, and we could see, to right 
and to left, moving columns march- 
ing parallel to ours. One, though there 
was not quite light enough to tell 
which, was our sister regiment, the i®' 
Regiment Etranger. The other, as I 
knew, was the 8^® Zouaves. The three 
columns marched at the same gait. It 
was like a funeral march, slow and very 
quiet. There was no singing and shout- 
ing; none of the usual badinage. Even 

i8 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the officers were silent. They were all 
on foot, marching like the rest of us. 
We knew there would be no use for 
horses to-morrow. 

To-morrow was the day fixed for 
the grand attack. There was not a man 
in the ranks who did not know that 
to-morrow, at g.iB, was the time set. 
Every man, I suppose, wondered 
whether he would do or whether he 
would die. I wondered myself. 

I did not really think I should die. 
Yet I had arranged my earthly affairs. 
"One can never tell," as the French 
soldier says with a shrug. I had writ- 
ten to my friends at home. I had 
named the men in my company to 
whom I wished to leave my personal 
belongings. Sergeant Velte was to 
have my Parabellum pistol; Casey my 
prismatics; Birchler my money-belt 
19 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and its contents; while Sergeant Jovert 
was booked for my watch and com- 
pass. Yet, in the back of my mind, I 
smiled at my own forethought. I knew 
that I should come out alive. I re- 
called to myself the numerous times 
that I had been in imminent peril: in 
the Philippines, in Mexico, and during 
the thirteen months of this war. I 
could remember time and again when 
men were killed on each side of 
me and I escaped unscratched. Take 
the affair of Papoin, Joly, and Bob 
Scanlon. We were standing together 
so near that we could have clasped 
hands. Papoin was killed, Joly was 
severely wounded, and Scanlon was hit 
in the ankle — all by the same shell. 
The fragments which killed and 
wounded the first two passed on one 
side of me, while the piece of iron that 
20 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

hit Bob went close by my other side. 
Yet I was untouched! Again, take the 
last patrol. When I was out of cover, 
the Germans shot at me from a range 
of ten metres — and missed! I felt 
certain that my day was not to-mor- 
row. 

Just the same, I was glad that my 
affairs were arranged, and it gave me 
a sense of conscious satisfaction to 
think that my comrades would have 
something to remember me by. There 
is always the chance of something un- 
foreseen happening. 

The pace was accelerating. The 
strain was beginning to wear off. From 
right and left there came a steady 
murmur of low talk. In our own col- 
umn men were beginning to chaff each 
other. I could distinctly hear Soubi- 
ron describing in picturesque detail to 

2 I 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Capdeveille how he, Capdeveille, would 
look, gracefully draped over the Ger- 
man barbed wire; and I could hear 
Capdeveille's heated response that he 
would live long enough to spit upon 
Soubiron's grave; and I smiled to my- 
self. The moment of depression and 
self-communication had passed. The 
men had found themselves and were 
beginning their usual chaffing. And 
yet, in all their chatter there seemed to 
be an unusually sharp note. The jokes 
all had an edge to them. References 
to one another's death were common, 
and good wishes for one another's par- 
tial dismemberment excited only laugh- 
ter. Just behind me I heard King ex- 
press the hope that if he lost an arm or 
a leg he would at least get the medaille 
militaire in exchange. By way of com- 
fort, his chum, Dowd, remarked that, 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

whether he got the medal or not, he 
was very sure of getting a permit to 
beg on the street-corners. 

From personal bickerings we passed 
on to a discussion of the Germans and 
German methods of making war. We 
talked on the finer points of hand-gre- 
nades, poison gas, flame-projectors, 
vitriol bombs, and explosive bullets. 
Everybody seemed to take particular 
pleasure in describing the horrible 
wounds caused by the different weap- 
ons. Each man embroidered upon the 
tales the others told. 

We were marching into hell. If you 
judged them by their conversation, 
these men must have been brutes at 
heart, worse than any "Apache"; and 
yet of those around me several were 
university graduates; one was a law- 
yer; two were clerks; one a poet of 

a3 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

standing; one an actor; and there were 
several men of leisure, Americans al- 
most all of them. 

The talk finally settled upon the 
Germans. Many and ingenious were 
the forms of torture invented upon the 
spur of the moment for the benefit of 
the "Boches." "Hanging is too good 
for them," said Scanlon. After a long 
discussion, scalping ahve seemed the 
most satisfactory to the crowd. 

It had come to be 1 1 p.m. We were at 
the mouth of the communicating trench 
and entering it, one by one. Every 
so often, short transverse trenches 
opened up to right and left, each one 
crammed full of soldiers. Talking 
and laughing stopped. We continued 
marching along the trench, kilometre 
after kilometre, in utter silence. As we 
moved forward, the lateral trenches 

24 



A SOtDIER OF THE LEGION 

became more numerous. Every fifteen 
to eighteen feet we came to one run- 
ning from right to left, and each was 
filled with troops, their arms grounded. 
As we filed slowly by, they looked at 
us enviously. It was amusing to see 
how curious they looked, and to watch 
their whispering as we passed. Why 
should we precede them in attack? 

" Who are you? " several men asked. 
. "La Legion." 

"A-a-ah, la Legion I That explains 
it." 

Our right to the front rank seemed 
to be acknowledged. It did every man 
of us good. 

We debouched from the trench into 
the street of a village. It was Souain. 
Houses, or ghosts of houses, walled us 
in on each side. Through the windows 
and the irregular shell-holes in the 

25 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

walls, the stars twinkled ; while through 
a huge gap in the upper story of one of 
the houses I caught a ghmpse of the 
moon, over my right shoulder. Lucky 
omen! "I'll come through all right," 
I repeated to myself, and rapped with 
my knuckle upon the rifle-stock, lest 
the luck break. 

Not one house in the village was left 
standing — only bare walls. Near the 
end of the street, in the midst of chaos, 
we passed a windmill. The gaunt steel 
frame stiU stood. I could see the black 
rents in the mill and the great arms 
where the shrapnel had done its work; 
but still the wheel turned, slowly, 
creaking round and round, with its 
shrill metal scream. 

The column turned to the left and 

again disappeared in a trench. After a 

short distance we turned to the right, 
26 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

then once more to the left, then on, 
and finally, not unwillingly, we came 
to a rest. We did not have to be told 
that we were now in the front hne, for 
through the rifle-ports we could see the 
French shells bursting ahead of us like 
Fourth-of-July rockets. 

The artillery had the range per- 
fectly, and the shells, little and big, 
plumped with pleasing regularity into 
the German trenches. The din was 
indescribable — almost intolerable. 
Forty, even fifty, shells per minute 
were falling into a space about a sin- 
gle kilometre square. The explosions 
sounded almost continuous, and the 
return fire of the Germans seemed al- 
most continuous. Only the great ten- 
inch long-range Teuton guns continued 
to respond effectively. 

We looked at the show for a while, 
27 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and then lay down in the trench. 
Every man used his knapsack for a 
pillow and tried to snatch a few hours' 
sleep. It was not a particularly good 
place for a nervous sleeper, but we 
were healthy and pretty tired. 

The next morning, at 8 a.m., hot cof- 
fee was passed round, and we break- 
fasted on sardines, cheese, and bread, 
with the coffee to wash it down. At 9 
the command passed down the line, 
"Every man ready I" Up went the 
knapsack on every man's back, and, 
rifle in hand, we filed along the trench. 

The cannonading seemed to increase 
in intensity. From the low places in 
the parapet we caught glimpses of 
barbed wire which would gUsten in oc- 
casional flashes of light. Our own we 
could plainly see, and a Uttle farther 
beyond was the German wire. 
28 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Suddenly, at the sound of a whistle, 
we halted. The command, '*Baion- 
nette au canon!" passed down the sec- 
tion. A drawn-out rattle followed, and 
the bayonets were fixed. Then the 
whistle sounded again. This time 
twice. We adjusted our straps. Each 
man took a look at his neighbor's 
equipment. I turned and shook hands 
with the fellows next to me. They 
were grinning, and I felt my own 
nerves a-quiver as we waited for the 
signal. 

Waiting seemed an eternity. As we 
stood there a shell burst close to our 
left. A moment later it was whispered 
along the Une that an adjutant and five 
men had gone down. 

What were we waiting for? I 
glanced at my watch. It was g.iS ex- 
actly. The Germans evidently had the 
29 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

range. Two more shells burst close to 
the same place. We inquired curiously 
who was hit this time. Our response 
was two whistles. That was our signal. 
I felt my jaws clenching, and the man 
next to me looked white. It was only 
for a second. Then every one of us 
rushed at the trench wall, each and 
every man struggling to be the first out 
of the trench. In a moment we had 
clambered up and out. We slid over 
the parapet, wormed our way through 
gaps in the wire, formed in line, and, 
at the command, moved forward at 
march-step straight toward the Ger- 
man wire. 

The world became a roaring hell. 
Shell after shell burst near us, some- 
times right among us; and, as we 
moved forward at the double-quick, 
men fell right and left. We could hear 

3o 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the subdued rattling of the mitrail- 
leuses and the roar of volley fire, but, 
above it all, I could hear with almost 
startling distinctness the words of the 
captain, shouting in his clear, high 
voice, *' En avanti Vive la France I " 



IV 

As we marched forward toward our 
goal, huge geysers of dust spouted into 
the air, rising behind our backs from 
the rows of "75's" supporting us. In 
front the fire-curtain outlined the whole 
length of the enemy's line with a neat- 
ness and accuracy that struck me with 
wonder, as the flames burst through 
the pall of smoke and dust around us. 
Above, all was blackness, but at its 
lower edge the curtain was fringed with 
red and green flames, marking the ex- 
plosion of the shells directly over the 
ditch and parapet in front of us. The 
low-flying clouds mingled with the 
smoke-curtain, so that the whole 
brightness of the day was obscured. 
Out of the blackness fell a trickling rain 

3a 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

of pieces of metal, lumps of earth, 
knapsacks, rifles, cartridges, and frag- 
ments of human flesh. We went on 
steadily, nearer and nearer. Now we 
seemed very close to the waU of shells 
streaming from our own guns, curving 
just above us, and dropping into the 
trenches in front. The effect was ter- 
rific. I almost braced myself against 
the rocking of the earth, like a sailor's 
instinctive gait in stormy weather. 

In a single spot immediately in front 
of us, not over ten metres in length, I 
counted twelve shells bursting so fast 
that I could not count them without 
missing other explosions. The scene 
was horrible and terrifying. Across the 
wall of our own fire poured shell after 
shell from the enemy, tearing through 
our ranks. From overhead the shrap- 
nel seemed to come down in sheets, and 

33 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

from behind the stinking, bhnding cur- 
tain came volleys of steel-jacketed bul- 
lets, their whine unheard and their ef- 
fect almost unnoticed. 

I think we moved forward simply 
from habit. With me it was like a 
dream as we went on, ever on. Here 
and there men dropped, the ranks clos- 
ing automatically. Of a sudden our 
own fire-curtain lifted. In a moment it 
had ceased to bar our way and jumped 
like a living thing to the next Une of 
the enemy. We could see the trenches 
in front of us now, quite clear of fire, 
but flattened almost beyond recogni- 
tion. The defenders were either killed 
or demoralized. Calmly, almost stu- 
pidly, we parried or thrust with the 
bayonet at those who barred our way. 
Without a backward glance we leaped 
the ditch and went on straight forward 
34 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

toward the next trench, marked in 
glowing outhne by our fire. I remem- 
ber now how the men looked. Their 
eyes had a wild, unseeing look in them. 
Everybody was gazing ahead, trying 
to pierce the awful curtain which cut 
us off from all sight of the enemy. Al- 
ways the black pall smoking and burn- 
ing appeared ahead — just ahead of us 
— hiding everything we wanted to see. 
The drama was played again and 
again. Each time, as we approached so 
close that fragments of our own shells 
occasionally struck a leading file, the 
curtain lifted as by magic, jumped 
the intervening metres, and descended 
upon the enemy's trench farther on. 
The ranges were perfect. We followed 
blindly — sometimes at a walk, some- 
times at a dog-trot, and, when close to 
our goal, on the dead run. You could 

35 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

not hear a word in that pandemonium. 
All commands were given by example 
or by gesture. When our captain lay 
down, we knew our orders were to lie 
down too. When he waved to the right, 
to the right we swerved ; if to the left, 
we turned to the left. A sweeping ges- 
ture, with an arm extended, first up, 
then down meant, ''Halt! Lie down!" 
From down up, it meant, "Rise!" 
When his hand was tlirust swiftly for- 
ward, we knew he was shouting, " En 
avantl" and when he waved his hand 
in a circle above his head, we broke 
into the double-quick. 

Tliree times on our way to the sec- 
ond trench, the captain dropped and 
we after him. Then three short, quick 
rushes by the companies and a final 
dash as the curtain of shells lifted and 
dropped farther away. Then a hand-to- 

36 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

hand struggle, short and very bloody, 
some using their bayonets, others 
clubbing their rifles and grenades. A 
minute or two, and the trench was 
ours. The earthen fortress, so strong 
that the Germans had boasted that it 
could be held by a janitor and two 
washerwomen, was in the hands of the 
Legion. 

As we swept on, the trench-cleaners 
entered the trench behind and began 
setting things to rights. Far down, 
six to eight metres below the surface, 
they found an underground city. Long 
tunnels, with chambers opening to 
right and left; bedrooms, furnished 
with bedsteads, washstands, tables, 
and chairs ; elaborate mess-rooms, some 
fitted with pianos and phonographs. 
There were kitchens, too, and even 
bathrooms. So complex was the laby- 
37 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

rinth that three days after the attack 
Germans were found stowed away in 
the lateral galleries. The passages were 
choked with dead. Hundreds of Ger- 
mans who had survived the bombard- 
ment were torn to pieces deep beneath 
the ground by French hand-grenades, 
and buried where they lay. In rifles, 
munitions, and equipment the booty 
was immense. 

We left the subterranean combat 
raging underneath us and continued 
on. As we passed over the main trench, 
we were enfiladed by cannon placed in 
armored turrets at the end of each sec- 
tion of trench. The danger was formid- 
able, but it, too, had been foreseen. In 
a few moments these guns were si- 
lenced by hand-grenades shoved point- 
blank through the gun-ports. Just 
then, I remember, I looked back and 

38 




O s 






A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

saw Pala down on his hands and knees. 
I turned and ran over to help him up. 
He was quite dead, killed in the act of 
rising from the ground. His grotesque 
posture struck me at the time as funny, 
and I could not help smiling. I suppose 
I was nervous. 

Our line was wearing thin. Halfway 
to the third trench we were reinforced 
by Battalion E coming from behind. 
The ground in our rear was covered 
with our men. 

All at once came a change. The Ger- 
man artillery in front ceased firing, 
and the next second we saw the reason 
why. In the trench ahead, the German 
troops in black masses were pouring 
out and advancing toward us at a trot. 
Was it a counter-attack? "Tant 
mieux," said a man near me; another, 
of a different race, said, *' We '11 show 
39 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

theml " Then as suddenly our own ar- 
tillery ceased firing, and the mystery 
became plain. The Germans were ap- 
proaching in columns of fours, officers 
to the front, hands held in the air, and, 
as they came closer, we could distin- 
guish the steady cry, "KameradenI 
Kameraden!" 

They were surrendering. How we 
went at our work I Out flew our knives, 
and, in less time than it takes to tell 
it, we had mingled among the prison- 
ers, slicing off their trousers buttons, 
cutting off suspenders, and hacking 
through belts. All the war shoes had 
their laces cut, according to the regula- 
tions laid down in the last French 
"Manual," and thus, slopping along, 
hands helplessly in their breeches 
pockets to keep their trousers from 
falling round their ankles, shuffling 
4o 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

their feet to keep their boots on, the 
huge column of prisoners was sent to 
the rear with a few soldiers to direct 
rather than to guard them. There was 
no fight left in them now. A terror- 
stricken group; some of them, tempo- 
rarily at least, half insane. 

As the Germans left the trenches, 
their artillery had paused, thinking 
it a counter-attack. Now, as file after 
file was escorted to the rear and it be- 
came apparent to their rear lines that 
the men had surrendered, the German 
artillery saw its mistake and opened up 
again furiously at the dark masses of 
defenseless prisoners. We, too, were 
subjected to a terrific fire. Six shells 
landed at the same instant in almost 
the same place, and within a few min- 
utes Section III of our company had 
almost disappeared. I lost two of my 
4i 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

own section, Casey and Leguen, both 
severely wounded in the leg. I counted 
fourteen men of my command still on 
their feet. The company seemed to 
have shrunk two thirds. A few min- 
utes later, we entered the trench lately 
evacuated by the Prussians and left it 
by a very deep communication trench 
which we knew led to our destination, 
Ferme Navarin. Just at the entrance 
we passed signboards, marked in big 
letters with black paint, Schutzen- 

GRABEN SpANDAU. 

This trench ran zigzag, in the gen- 
eral direction north and south. In 
many places it was filled level with dirt 
and rocks kicked in by our big shells. 
From the mass of debris hands and 
legs were sticking stiffly out at gro- 
tesque angles. In one place, the heads 
of two men showed above the loose 

42 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

brown earth. Here and there, men 
were sitting, their backs against the 
wall of the trench, quite dead, with not 
a wound showing. In one deep crater, 
excavated by our 320-milUmetres, lay 
five Saxons, side by side, in the pit 
where they had sought refuge, killed 
by the bursting of a single shell. One, 
a man of about twenty-three years of 
age, lay on his back, his legs tensely 
doubled, elbows thrust back into the 
ground, and fingers dug into the palms ; 
eyes staring in terror and mouth wide 
open. I could not help carrying the pic- 
ture of fear away with me, and I 
thought to myself. That man died a 
coward. Just alongside of him, resting 
on his left side, lay a blond giant 
stretched out easily, almost graceful in 
death. His two hands were laid to- 
gether, palm to palm, in prayer. Be- 
43 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

tween them was a photograph. The 
look upon his face was cahn and peace- 
ful. The contrast of his figure with his 
neighbor's struck me. I noticed that a 
paper protruded from his partly opened 
blouse, and, picking it up, I read the 
heading, "Ein' Feste Burg ist TJnser 
Gott." It was a two-leaved tract. I 
drew a blanket over him and followed 
my section. 

The trench we marched in wound 
along in the shelter of a little ridge 
crowned with scrubby pines. Here the 
German shells bothered us but little. 
We were out of sight of their observa- 
tion posts, and, consequently, their 
fire was uncontrolled and no longer 
effective. On we went. At every other 
step our feet pressed down upon sol- 
diers' corpses, lying indiscriminately 
one on top of the other, sometimes 
44 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

almost filling the trench. I brushed 
against one who sat braced against the 
side of the trench, the chin resting up- 
on folded arms naturally — yet quite 
dead. It was through this trench that 
the Germans had tried to rush rein- 
forcements into the threatened posi- 
tion, and here the men were slaugh- 
tered, without a chance to go back 
or forward. Hemmed in by shells in 
both front and rear, many hundreds 
had climbed into the open and tried to 
escape over the fields toward the pine 
forest, only to be mown down as they 
ran. For hundreds of metres continu- 
ously my feet, as I trudged along, did 
not touch the ground. In many of the 
bodies life was not yet extinct, but we 
had to leave them for the Red Cross 
men. We had our orders. No delay 
was possible, and, at any rate, our 

45 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

minds were clogged with our own work 
ahead. 

Making such time as we could, we 
finally arrived at the summit of the 
little ridge. Then we left the cover of 
the trench, formed in Indian file, fifty 
metres between sections, and, at the 
signal, moved forward swiftly and in 
order. 

It was a pretty bit of tactics and ex- 
ecuted with a dispatch and neatness 
hardly equalled on the drill-ground. 
The first files of the sections were 
abreast, while the men fell in, one close 
behind the other; and so we crossed the 
ridge, offering the smallest possible tar- 
get to the enemy's guns. Before us and 
a httle to our left was the Ferme Nava- 
rin, our goal. As we descended the 
slope, we were greeted by a new hail of 
iron. Shells upon shells, fired singly, 
46 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

by pairs, by salvos, from six-gun bat- 
teries, crashed and exploded around 
us. 

We increased the pace to a run and 
arrived out of breath abreast of im- 
mense pits dynamited out of the ground 
by prodigious explosions. Embedded 
in them we could see three enemy how- 
itzers, but not a living German was 
left. All had disappeared. 

We entered the pits and rested for a 
space. After a moment we crawled up 
the side of the pit and peeked over the 
edge. There I could see Doumergue 
stretched on the ground. He was lying 
on his back, his shoulders and head sup- 
ported by his knapsack. His right leg 
was doubled under him, and I could 
see that he had been struck down in 
the act of running. As I watched, he 
strained weakly to roll himself side- 

47 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

ways and free his leg. Slowly, spas- 
modically, his leg moved. Very, very 
slowly the foot dragged itself along 
the ground, and finally the Umb was 
stretched alongside the other. Then 
I saw his rough, wan face assume a 
look of satisfaction. His eyes closed. 
A sigh passed between his lips, and 
Doumergue had gone with the rest. 

As we waited there, the mood of the 
men seemed to change. Their spirits 
began to rise. One jest started another, 
and soon we were all laughing at the 
memory of the German prisoners 
marching to the rear, holding up their 
trousers with both hands. Some of the 
men had taken the welcome opportu- 
nity of searching the prisoners while 
cutting their suspenders, and most of 
them were now puffing German ciga- 
rettes. One of them, Haeffle, offered me 
48 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

a piece of K. K. bread/ black as ink. I 
declined with thanks, for I did n't like 
the looks of it. In the relaxation of the 
moment, nobody paid any attention to 
the shells falhng outside the little open 
shelter, until Capdeveille proposed to 
crawl inside one of the German how- 
itzers for security. Alas, he was too fat, 
and stuck! I myself hoped rather 
strongly that no shell would enter one 
of these pits in which the company had 
found shelter, because I knew there 
were several thousand rounds of am- 
munition piled near each piece hidden 
under the dirt, and an explosion might 
make it hot for us. 

As we sat there, smoking and chat- 
ing, Delpeuch, the homme des liaisons, 
as he is called, of the company, slid 
over the edge of the hollow and brought 

' Kriegs Karioffel Brot. 
49 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

with him the order to leave the pit 
in single file and to descend to the 
bottom of the inchne, in line with 
some trees which he pointed out to us. 
There we were to deploy in open order 
and dig shelter-trenches for ourselves 
— though I can tell the reader that 
"shelter" is a poor word to use in such 
a connection. It seems we had to wait 
for artillery before making the attack 
on Navarin itself. The trench " Span- 
dau," so Delpeuch told me, was being 
put into shape by the engineers and 
was already partially filled with troops 
who were coining up to our support. 
The same message had been carried to 
the other section. As we filed out of 
our pit, we saw them leaving theirs. In 
somewhat loose formation, we ran full- 
tilt down the hill, and, at the assigned 
position, flung ourselves on the ground 

5o 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and began digging like mad. We had 
made the last stretch without losing a 
man. 

The Ferme Navarin was two hun- 
dred metres from where we lay. From 
it came a heavy rifle and mitrailleuse 
fire, but we did not respond. We had 
something else to do. Every man had 
his shovel, and every man made the 
dirt fly. In what seemed half a minute 
we had formed a continuous parapet, 
twelve to fourteen inches in height, 
and with our knapsacks placed to keep 
the dirt in position, we felt quite safe 
against infantry and machine-gun fire. 
Next, each man proceeded to dig his 
little individual niche in the ground, 
about a yard deep, twenty inches wide, 
and long enough to lie down in with 
comfort. Between each two men there 
remained a partition wall of dirt, from 

5i 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

ten to fifteen inches thick, the useful- 
ness of which was immediately demon- 
strated by a shell which fell into Blon- 
dino's niche, blowing him to pieces 
without injuring either of his compan- 
ions to the right or the left. 

We were comfortable and able to 
take pot shots at the Germans and to 
indulge again in the old trench game of 
sticking a helmet on a bayonet, push- 
ing it a little above the dirt, and thus 
coaxing the Germans into a shot and 
immediately responding with four or 
five rifles. I looked at my watch. It 
said 10.45 — just an hour and a half 
since we had left our trenches and 
started on our charge; an hour and a 
half in which I had lived days and 
years. 

I was pretty well tired out and 
would have given the world for a few 

52 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

hours' i sleep. I called to Merrick to 
toss me Blondino's canteen. Mine was 
empty, and Blondino had left his be- 
hind when he departed with the 1 05- 
millimetre. Haeffle remarked that 
Blondino was always making a noise 
anyway. 

The artillery fire died down gradu- 
ally and only one German battery was 
still sweeping us now. Our long-range 
pieces thundered behind us, and we 
could hear shells ''swooshing" over- 
head in a constant stream on their way 
to the German target. Our jQre was evi- 
dently beating down the German artil- 
lery fire excepting the single battery 
which devoted its attention to us. The 
guns were hidden, and our artillery did 
not seem able to locate them. Our aero- 
planes, long hovering overhead, began 
to swoop dangerously low. A swift 

53 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Morane plane swept by at a height of 
two hundred metres over the pine for- 
est where the German guns were hid- 
den. We watched him as he returned 
safe to our hues. 

Soon the order came down the line 
to deepen the trenches. It seemed we 
were to stay there until night. 

The charge was over. 



V 

Time passed very slowly. I raised my 
arm to listen to my wrist-watch, but 
could n't hear it. Too many shells! 

I knelt cautiously in my hole, and, 
looking over the edge, counted my sec- 
tion. There were but eighteen men. 
The CoUettes, both corporals, were on 
the extreme left. Next came Capde- 
veille, Dowd, Zinn, Seeger, Scanlon, 
King, Soubiron, Dubois, Corporal Met- 
tayer, Haeffle, Saint-Hilaire, Schneli, 
De Sumera, Corporal Denis, Bur-bek- 
kar, and Birchler. On my left, two 
paces in the rear of the section, were 
Neumayer, Corporal Fourrier, and 
Sergeant Fourrier. Both these were 
supernumeraries. The second sergeant 
was over with Section II. I began now 

55 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

to realize our losses. Fully two thirds 
of my section were killed or wounded. 

I wanted information from Corporal 
Denis regarding the men of his squad. 
Throwing a lump of dirt at him to at- 
tract his attention, I motioned to him 
to roll over to the side of his hole and 
make a place for me. Then, with two 
quick jumps I landed alongside him. 
As I dropped we noticed spurts of dust 
rising from the dirt-pile in front of the 
hole and smiled. The Germans were 
too slow that time. Putting my lips to 
his ears, I shouted my questions and 
got my information. 

This hole was quite large enough to 
accommodate both of us, so I decided 
to stay with him awhile. Corporal 
Denis still had bread and cheese and 
shared it with me. We lunched in com- 
fort. 

56 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Having finished, we rolled cigarettes. 
I had no matches, and as he reached 
his cigarette to me to light mine, he 
jumped almost to his feet, rolled on his 
face, and with both hands clasped to 
his face, tried to rise, but could n't. 
I 've seen men who were knocked out 
in the squared ring do the same thing. 
With heads resting on the floor, they 
try to get up. They get up on their 
knees and seem to try to lift their heads, 
but can't. Denis tugged and tugged, 
without avail. I knelt alongside him 
and forced his hands from his face. He 
was covered with blood spurting out of 
a three-inch gash running from the left 
eye down to the corner of the mouth. 
A steel splinter had entered there and 
passed under the left ear. He must 
stay in the trench until nightfall. 

I reached for his emergency dressing 
57 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and as I made the motion felt a blow in 
the right shoulder. As soon as I had 
got Denis tied up and quiet, I unbut- 
toned my coat and shirt and picked 
a rifle-ball out of my own shoulder. 
The wound was not at all serious and 
bled but little. I congratulated myself, 
but wondered why the ball did not 
penetrate; and then I caught sight of 
Denis's rifle lying over the parapet and 
showing a hole in the woodwork. The 
ball seemed to have passed through 
the magazine of the rifle, knocked out 
one cartridge, and then hit me. 

When I was ready to return to my 
own hole, I rose a little too high and 
the Germans turned loose with a ma- 
chine gun, but too high. I got back 
safely and lay down. It was getting 
very monotonous. To pass the time, I 
dug my hole deeper and larger, placing 

58 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the loose dirt in front in a quarter-cir- 
cle, until I felt perfectly safe against 
anything except a direct hit by a shell. 
There is but one chance in a thousand 
of that happening. 

The day passed slowly and without 
mishap to my section. As night fell, 
one half of the section stayed on the 
alert four hours, while the other half 
slept. The second sergeant had re- 
turned and reheved me at twelve, mid- 
night. I pulled several handfuls of 
grass, and with that and two overcoats 
I had stripped from dead Germans dur- 
ing the night, I made a comfortable 
bed and lay down to sleep. The bank 
was not uncomfortable. I was very 
tired, and dozed off immediately. 

Suddenly I awoke in darkness. Ev- 
erything was still, and I could hear my 
watch ticking, but over every part 
59 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

of me there was an immense leaden 
weight. I tried to rise, and could n't 
move. Something was holding me and 
choking me at the same time. There 
was no air to breathe. I set my mus- 
cles and tried to give a strong heave. 
As I drew in my breath, my mouth 
filled with dirt. I was buried alive! 

It is curious what a man thinks 
about when he is in trouble. Into my 
mind shot memories of feats of 
strength performed. Why, I was the 
strongest man in the section. Surely I 
could lift myself out, I thought to my- 
self, and my confidence began to re- 
turn. I worked the dirt out of my 
mouth with the tip of my tongue and 
prepared myself mentally for the sud- 
den heave that would free me. A quick 
inhalation, and my mouth filled again 
with dirt. I could not move a muscle 
60 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

under my skin. And then I seemed to 
be two people. The "I" who was 
thinking seemed to be at a distance 
from the body lying there. 

My God I Am I going to die 
stretched out in a hole Uke this? I 
thought. 

Through my mind flashed a picture 
of the way I had always hoped to die — 
the way I had a right to die : face to the 
enemy and running toward him. Why, 
that was part of a soldier's wages. I 
tried to shout for help, and more dirt 
entered my mouth! I could feel it 
gritting way down in my throat. My 
tongue was locked so I could not move 
it. I watched the whole picture. I was 
standing a httle way off and could hear 
myself gurgle. My throat was ratthng, 
and I said to myself, *' That's the fin- 
ish!" Then I grew calm. It wasn't 

6i 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

hurting so much, and somehow or 
other I seemed to reahze that a soldier 
had taken a soldier's chance and lost. 
It was n't his fault. He had done the 
best he could. Then the pain all left 
me and the world went black. It was 
death. 

Then somebody yelled, *'Helll He 
bit my finger." I could hear him. 

"That's nothing," said a voice I 
knew as CoUette's. " Get the dirt out 
of his mouth." 

Again a finger entered my throat, 
and I coughed spasmodically. 

Some one was working my arms 
backward, and my right shoulder hurt 
me. I struggled up, but sank to my 
knees and began coughing up dirt. 

"Here," says Soubiron, "turn round 
and spit that dirt on your parapet. It 
all helps." The remark made me smile. 
62 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

I was quite all right now, and Sou- 
biron, Collette, Joe, and Marcel re- 
turned to their holes. The Red Cross 
men were picking something out of the 
hole made by a 25o-millimetre, they 
told me. It was the remnant of Cor- 
poral and Sergeant Fourrier, who had 
their trench to my left. It seems that 
a ten-inch shell had entered the ground 
at the edge of my hole, exploded 
a depth of two metres, tearing the 
corporal and the sergeant to pieces, 
and kicking several cubic metres of 
dirt into and on top of me. Soubiron 
and the CoUettes saw what had hap- 
pened, and immediately started dig- 
ging me out. They had been just in 
time. It was n't long before my 
strength began to come back. Two 
stretcher-bearers came up to carry me 
to the rear, but I declined their serv- 

63 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

ices. There was too much going on. I 
dug out the German overcoats, recov- 
ered some grass, and, bedding myself 
down in the crater made by the shell, 
began to feel quite safe again. Light- 
ning never strikes twice in the same 
spot. 

However, that was n't much like the 
old-fashioned Ughtning. The enemy 
seemed to have picked upon my sec- 
tion. The shells were faUing thicker 
and closer. Everybody was broad 
awake now, and all of us seemed to be 
waiting for a shell to drop into our 
holes. It was only a question of time 
before we should be wiped out. 
Haeffle called my attention to a little 
trench we all had noticed during the 
daytime, about forty metres in front 
of us. No fire had come from there, 
and it was evidently quite abandoned. 
64 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

I took Haeffle and Saint-Hilaire 
with me and quietly crawled over to 
the trench, round the end of it, and 
started to enter at about the middle. 

Then all of a sudden a wild yell 
came out of the darkness in front of us. 

" Franzosen ! Die Franzosen ! ' ' 

We could n't see anything, nor they 
either. There might have been a regi- 
ment of us, or of them for that matter. 
I screeched out in German, "Hande 
hoch I " and jumped into the trench fol- 
lowed by my two companions. As we 
crouched in the bottom, I yelled again, 
"Hande hoch oder wir schiesseni" 

The response was the famiUar "Ka- 
meraden I Kameraden ! ' ' Haeffle gave 
an audible chuckle. 

Calling again on my German, I or- 
dered the men to step out of the trench 
with hands held high, and to march 

65 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

toward our line. I assured the poor 
devils we would n't hurt them. They 
thought there was a division of us, 
more or less, and I don't know how 
much confidence they put in my assur- 
ance. Anyhow, as they scrambled 
over the parapet, I counted six of them 
prisoners to the three of us. Haeffle 
and Saint-Hilaire escorted them back 
and also took word to the second ser- 
geant to let the section crawl, one after 
the other, up this trench to where I was. 

One by one the men came on, crawl- 
ing in single file, and I put them to 
work, carefully and noiselessly revers- 
ing the parapet. This German trench 
was very deep, with niches cut into the 
bank at intervals of one metre, permit- 
ting the men to lie down comfortably. 

It was then that I happened to feel 
of my belt. One of the 3tj:aps had 

66 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

been cut clean through and my wallet, 
which had held two hundred and sixty- 
five francs, had been neatly removed. 
Some one of my men, who had risked 
his life for mine with a self-devotion 
that could scarcely be surpassed, had 
felt that his need was greater than 
mine. Whoever he was, I bear him no 
grudge. Poor chap, if he hved he 
needed the money — and that day he 
surely did me a good turn. Besides, 
he was a member of the Legion. 

I placed sentries, took care to find a 
good place for myself, and was just 
dropping off to sleep as Haeffle and 
Saint-Hilaire returned and communi- 
cated to me the captain's compliments 
and the assurance of a ''citation,'' 

I composed myself to sleep and 
dropped off quite content. 



VI 

It seemed but a few minutes when I 
was awakened by CoUette and Marcel, 
who ofTered me a steaming cup of cof- 
fee, half a loaf of bread, and some 
Swiss cheese. This food had been 
brought from the rear while I was lying 
asleep. My appetite was splendid, and 
when Sergeant Malvoisin offered me a 
drink of rum in a canteen that he took 
off a dead German, I accepted grate- 
fully. Just then the agent de liaison 
appeared, with the order to assemble 
the section, and in single file, second 
section at thirty-metre interval, to re- 
turn the way we had come. 

It was almost daylight and things 
were visible at two to three metres. 
The bombardment had died down and 

68 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the quiet was hardly disturbed by oc- 
casional shots. Our captain marched 
ahead of the second section, swinging a 
cane and contentedly puffing on his 
pipe. Nearly everybody was smoking. 
As we marched along we noticed that 
new trenches had been dug during the 
night, from sixty to a hundred metres 
in the rear of the position we had held, 
and these trenches were filled by the 
Twenty-ninth Chasseurs Regiment, 
which replaced us. 

Very cunningly these trenches were 
arranged. They were deep and nar- 
row, fully seven feet deep and barely a 
yard wide. At every favorable point, 
on every Httle rise in the ground, a sa- 
lient had been constructed, projecting 
out from the main trench ten to fifteen 
metres, protected by heavy logs, cor- 
rugated steel sheets, and two to three 
69 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

feet of dirt. Each side of the salients 
bristled with machine guns. Any at- 
tack upon this position would be bound 
to fail, owing to the intense volume of 
fire that could be brought to bear upon 
the flanks of the enemy. 

To make assurance doubly sure, the 
Engineer Corps had dug rows of cup- 
shaped bowls, two feet in diameter, 
two feet deep, leaving but a narrow 
wedge of dirt between each two; and in 
the center of each bowl was placed a 
six-pointed twisted steel "porcupine." 
This instrument, no matter how placed, 
always presents a sharp point right at 
you. Five rows of these man-traps I 
counted, separated by a thin wall of 
dirt, not strong enough to maintain the 
weight of a man, so that any one who 
attempted to rush past would be 
thrown against the "porcupine" and 
70 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

be spitted like a pigeon. As an addi^ 
tional precaution a mass of barbed 
wire lay in rolls, ready to be placed in 
front of this ouvrage, to make it safe 
against any surprise. 

We marched along, talking and chat- 
ting, discussing this and that, without a 
care in the world. Every one hoped 
we were going to the rear to recuperate 
and enjoy a good square meal and a 
good night's rest. Seeger wanted a 
good wash, he said. He was rather 
dirty, and so was I. My puttees dan- 
gled in pieces round my calves. It 
seems I had torn them going through 
the German wire the day before. I 
told Haeffle to keep his eyes open for a 
good pair on some dead man. He said 
he would. 

The company marched round the 
hill we descended so swiftly yesterday 
71 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and, describing a semicircle, entered 
again the Schiitzengraben Spandau and 
marched back in the direction we had 
come from. The trench, however, pre- 
sented a different appearance. The 
bad places had been repaired, the loose 
dirt had been shoveled out, and the 
dead had disappeared. On the east 
side of the trench an extremely high 
parapet had been built. In this para- 
pet even loopholes appeared — rather 
funny-looking loopholes, I thought; 
and when I looked closer, I saw that 
they were framed in by boots! I 
reached my hand into several of them 
as we walked along, and touched the 
limbs of dead men. The engineer, it 
seems, in need of material, had placed 
the dead Germans on top of the ground, 
feet flush with the inside of the ditch, 
leaving from six to seven inches be- 
72 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

tween two bodies, and laying another 
body crosswise on top of the two, 
spanning the gap between them. Then 
they had shoveled the dirt on top of 
them, thus kilHng two birds with one 
stone. 

The discovery created a riot of ex- 
citement among the men. Curses in- 
termingled with laughter came from 
ahead of us. Everybody was tickled by 
the ingenuity of our genie, "They are 
marvelous ! " we thought. Dowd's face 
showed consternation, yet he could not 
help smiling. Little King was pale 
around the mouth, yet his lips were 
twisted in a grin. It was horribly amus- 
ing. 

Every two hundred metres we 
passed groups of soldiers of the one 
Hundred and Seventieth Regiment on 
duty in the trench. The front line, 

73 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

they told us, was twelve hundred me- 
tres farther east, and this trench 
formed the second hne for their regi- 
ment. We entered the third-line trench 
of the Germans, from which they ran 
yesterday to surrender, and continued 
marching in the same direction — al- 
ways east. Here we had a chance to 
investigate the erstwhile German habi- 
tations. 

Exactly forty paces apart doorways 
opened into the dirt bank, and from 
each of them fourteen steps descended 
at about forty-five degrees into a cel- 
lar-Uke room. The stairs were built of 
wood and the sides of the stairways 
and the chambers below were lined 
with one-inch pine boards. These dom- 
iciles must have been quite comfort- 
able and safe, but now they were 
choked with bodies. As we continued 

74 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

our leisurely way, we met some of our 
trench-cleaners and they recited their 
experiences with gusto. The Germans, 
they told us, pointing down into the 
charnel-houses, refused to come and 
give up, and even fired at them when 
summoned to surrender. "Then what 
did you do.^" I asked. "Very simple," 
answered one. "We stood on the top 
of the ground right above the door and 
hurled grenade after grenade through 
the doorway until all noise gradually 
ceased down below. Then we went to 
the next hole and did the same thing. 
It was n't at all dangerous," he added, 
"and very effective." 

We moved but slowly along the 
trench, and every once in a while there 
was a halt while some of the men inves- 
tigated promising "prospects," where 
the holes packed with dead Germans 

75 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

held out some promise of loot. Owing 
to the order of march, the first com- 
pany was the last one in Une, and my 
section at the very end. The head of 
the column was the fourth company, 
then the third, the second; and then 
we. By the time my section came to 
any hole holding out hopes of souve- 
nirs, there was nothing left for us. Yet 
I did find a German officer with a new 
pair of leg-bands, and, hastily unwind- 
ing them, I discarded my own and put 
on the new ones. As I bound them on 
I noticed the name on the tag — " Hin- 
denburg." I suppose the name stands 
for quality with the Boches. 

We left the trench and swung into 
another communication trench, going 
to the left, still in an easterly direction, 
straight on toward the Butte de Sou- 
ain. That point we knew was still in 
76 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the hands of the Germans, and very 
quickly they welcomed us. Shells came 
shrieking down — one hundred and 
five millimetres, one hundred and fifty, 
two hundred and ten, and two hun- 
dred and fifty. It's very easy to tell 
when you are close to them, even 
though you can't see a thing. When a 
big shell passes high, it sounds like a 
white-hot piece of iron suddenly doused 
in cold water; but when i* gets close, 
the sw-i'ish suddenly rises in a high 
crescendo, a shriek punctuated by a 
horrible roar. The uniformity of move- 
ment as the men ducked was beauti- 
ful! — and they all did it. One mo- 
ment there was a line of gray helmets 
bobbing up and down the trenches as 
the fine plodded on; and the next in- 
stant one could see only a line of black 
canvas close to the ground, as every 

77 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

man ducked and shifted his shoulder- 
sack over his neck. My sack had been 
blown to pieces when I was buried, and 
I felt uncomfortably handicapped with 
only my musette for protection against 
steel sphnters. 

About a mile from where we entered 
this boyau, we came to a temporary 
halt, then went on once more. The 
fourth company had come to a halt, 
and we squeezed past them as we 
marched along. Every man of them 
had his shovel out and had commenced 
digging a niche for himself. We passed 
the fourth company, then the third, 
then the second, and finally the first, 
second, and third sections of our own 
company. Just beyond, we ourselves 
came to a halt and, fining up one man 
per metre, started to organize the 
trench for defensive purposes. From 
78 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the other side of a shght ridge, east of 
us, and about six hundred metres away, 
came the sound of machine guns. Be- 
tween us and the ridge the Germans 
were executing a very hvely feu de 
barrage, a screen of fire, prohibiting any 
idea of sending reinforcements over to 
the front Hne. 

Attached for rations to my section 
were the commandant of the battaKon, 
a captain, and three sergeants of the 
Etat-Major. Two of the sergeants 
were at the trench telephone, and I 
could hear them report the news to 
the officers. "The Germans," they re- 
ported, "are penned in on three sides 
and are prevented from retreating by 
our artillery." Twice they had tried 
to pierce our line between them and 
the Butte de Souain, and twice they 
were driven back. Good news for us I 

79 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

At 10 A.M. we sent three men from 
each section to the rear for the soup. 
At about eleven they reappeared with 
steaming marmites of soup, stew, and 
coffee, and buckets of wine. The food 
was very good, and disappeared to the 
last morsel. 

After we had eaten, the captain 
granted me permission to walk along 
the ditch back to the fourth company. 
The trench being too crowded for com- 
fort, I walked alongside to the second 
company, and searched for my friend 
Sergeant Velte. Finally I found him 
lying in a shell-hole, side by side with 
his adjutant and Sergeant Morin. All 
three were dead, torn to pieces by one 
shell shortly after we had passed them 
in the morning. At the third company 
they reported that Second Lieutenant 
Sweeny had been shot through the 
80 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

chest by a lost ball that morning. Hard 
luck for Sweeny! ^ The poor devil had 
just been nominated sous-lieutenant at 
the request of the French Embassy in 
Washington, and when he was at- 
tached as supernumerary to the third 
company we all had hopes that he 
would have a chance to prove his 
merit. 

In the fourth company also the 
losses were severe. The part of the 
trench occupied by the three compa- 
nies was directly enfiladed by the Ger- 
man batteries on the Butte de Souain, 
and every little while a shell would fall 
square into the ditch and take toll from 
the occupants. Our company was fully 
a thousand metres nearer to these bat- 
teries, but the trenches we occupied 
presented a three-quarters face to the 

* Lieutenant Sweeny has returned to America. 
8i 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

jBre, and consequently were ever so 
much harder to hit. Even then, when I 
got back I found four men hors de com- 
bat in the fourth section. In my section 
two niches were demolished without 
any one being hit. 

Time dragged slowly until four in 
the afternoon, when we had soup 
again. Many of the men built little 
fires and with the Erbsenwurst they 
had found on dead Germans prepared 
a very palatable soup by way of extra 
rations. 

At four o'clock sentries were posted 
and everybody fell asleep. A steady 
rain was falling, and to keep dry we 
hooked one edge of our tent-sheet on 
the ground above the niche and placed 
dirt on top of it to hold. Then we 
pushed cartridges through the button- 
holes of the tent, pinning them into 
82 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the side of the trench and forming a 
good cover for the occupant of the 
hole. Thus we rested until the new 
day broke, bringing a clear sky and 
sunshine. This day, the 27th, — the 
third of the battle, — passed without 
mishap to my section. We spent our 
time eating and sleeping, mildly dis- 
tracted by an intermittent bombard- 
ment. 



VII 

Another night spent in the same 
cramped quarters! We were getting 
weary of inactivity, and it was rather 
hard work to keep the men in the ditch. 
They sneaked off singly and in pairs, 
always heading back to the German 
dugouts, all bent on turning things up- 
side down in the hope of finding some- 
thing of value to carry as a keepsake. 
Haeffle came back once with three 
automatic pistols but no cartridges. 
From another trip he returned with an 
officer's helmet, and the third time he 
brought triumphantly back a string 
three feet long of dried sausages. 
Haefflie always did have a healthy appe- 
tite and it transpired that on the way 
back he had eaten a dozen sausages, 
84 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

more or less. The dried meat had made 
him thirsty and he had drunk half a 
canteen of water on top of it. The re- 
sult was, he swelled up like a poisoned 
pup, and for a time he was surely a sick 
man. 

Zinn found two shiny German bayo- 
nets, a long thin one and one short and 
heavy, and swore he 'd carry them for 
a year if he had to. Zinn hailed from 
Battle Creek and wanted to use them 
as brush-knives on camping trips in the 
Michigan woods ; but alas, in the sequel 
they got too heavy and were dropped 
along the road. One man found a Ger- 
man pipe with a three-foot soft-rubber 
stem, which he intended sending to 
his brother as a souvenir. Man and 
pipe are buried on the slopes of the 
Butte de Souain. He died that same 
evening. 

85 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

At the usual time, 4 p.m., we had 
soup, and immediately after came the 
order to get ready. Looking over the 
trench, we watched the fourth com- 
pany form in the open back of the ditch 
and, marching past us in an obUque 
direction, disappear round a spur of 
wooded hill. The third company fol- 
lowed at four hundred metres' distance, 
then the second, and as they passed 
out of sight around the hill, we jumped 
out and, forming in Kne, sections at 
thirty-metre intervals, each company 
four hundred metres in the rear of the 
one ahead, we followed, arme a la brC" 
telle. 

We were quite unobserved by the 
enemy, and marched the length of the 
hill for three fourths of a kilometre, 
keeping just below the crest. Above us 
sailed four big French battle-planes 

86 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and some small aero scouts, on the 
lookout for enemy aircraft. For a 
while it seemed as if we should not be 
discovered, and the command was 
given to lie down. From where we lay 
we could observe clearly the ensuing 
scrap in the air, and it was worth 
watching. Several German planes had 
approached close to our lines, but were 
discovered by the swift-flying scouts. 
Immediately the little fellows returned 
with the news to the big planes, and 
we watched the monster biplanes 
mount to the combat. In a wide circle 
they swung, climbing, climbing higher 
and higher, and then headed in a bee- 
line straight toward the German tau- 
ben. As they approached within range 
of each other, we saw little clouds ap- 
pear close to the German planes, some 
in front, some over them, and others 
87 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

behind; and then, after an interval, 
the report of the thirty-two-milKmetre 
guns mounted on our battle-planes 
floated down to us, immediately fol- 
lowed like an echo by the crack of the 
bursting shell. Long before the Ger- 
mans could get within effective range 
for their machine guns, they were pep- 
pered by our planes and ignominiously 
forced to beat a retreat. One *' alba- 
tross" seemed to be hit. He staggered 
from one side to the other, then dipped 
forward, and, standing straight on his 
nose, dropped Uke a stone out of sight 
behind the forest crowning the hill. 

Again we moved on, and shortly ar- 
rived at the southern spur of the hill. 
Here the company made a quarter 
turn to the left, and in the same forma- 
tion began the ascent of the hill. The 
second company was just disappearing 

88 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

into the scrubby pine forest on top. 
We entered also, continued on to the 
top, and halted just below the crest. 
The captain called the officers and ser- 
geants and, following him, we crawled 
on our stomachs up to the highest 
point and looked over. 

Never shall I forget the panorama 
that spread before us! The four thin 
ranks of the second company seemed 
to stagger drunkenly through a sea of 
green fire and smoke. One moment 
gaps showed in the lines, only to be 
closed again as the rear files spurted. 
Undoubtedly they ran at top speed, 
but to us watchers they seemed to 
crawl, and at times almost to stop. 
Mixed in with the dark green of the 
grass covering the valley were rows of 
fighter color, telling of the men who 
fell in that mad sprint. The continu- 
89 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

ous bombardment sounded like a giant 
drum beating an incredibly swift rata- 
plan. Along the whole length of our 
hill this curtain of shells was dropping, 
levehng the forest and seemingly beat- 
ing off the very face of the hill itself, 
clean down to the bottom of the valley. 
Owing to the proximity of our troops 
to the enemy's batteries we received 
hardly any support from our own big 
guns, and the role of the combatants 
was entirely reversed. The Germans 
had their innings then and full well 
they worked. 

As the company descended into the 
valley the pace became slower, and at 
the beginning of the opposite slope 
they halted and faced back. Owing to 
the height of the Butte de Souain, they 
were safe, and they considered that it 
was their turn to act as spectators. 
90 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

As our captain rose we followed and 
took our places in front of our sections. 
Again I impressed upon the minds of 
my men the importance of following in 
a straight line and as close behind one 
another as possible. ' ' Arme a la main !' ' 
came the order, and slowly we moved 
to the crest and then immediately 
broke into a dog-trot. Instantly we 
were enveloped in flames and smoke. 
Hell kissed us welcome! Closely I 
watched the captain for the sign to in- 
crease our speed. I could have run a 
mile in record time, but he plugged 
steadily along, one, two, three, four, 
one, two, three, four, at a tempo of a 
hundred and eighty steps per minute, 
three to the second, — the regulation 
tempo. Inwardly I cursed his insist- 
ence upon having things reglementaires. 

As I looked at the middle of his 
91 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

back, longing for him to hurry, I 
caught sight, on my right, of a shell 
exploding directly in the center of the 
third section. Out of the tail of my eye 
I saw the upper part of Corporal Ker- 
audy's body rise slowly into the air. 
The legs had disappeared, and with 
arms outstretched the trunk sank 
down upon the corpse of Varma, the 
Hindu, who had marched behind him. 
Instinctively, I almost stopped in my 
tracks — Keraudy was a friend of mine 
— but at the instant Corporal Met- 
tayer, running behind me, bumped into 
my back, and shoved me again into 
life and action. 

We were out of the woods then, and 
running down the bare slope of the hill. 
A puff of smoke, red-hot, smote me in 
the face, and at the same moment in- 
tense pain shot up my jaw. I did not 

92 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

think I was hit seriously, since I was 
able to run all right. Some one in the 
second section intoned the regimental 
march, "Allons, Giron." Others took 
it up; and there in that scene of death 
and hell, this song portraying the lusts 
and vices of the Legion Etrangere be- 
came a very paean of enthusiasm and 
courage. 

Glancing to the right, I saw that we 
were getting too close to the second 
section, so I gave the signal for a left 
obhque. We bore away from them un- 
til once again at our thirty paces' dis- 
tance. All at once my feet tangled up 
in something and I almost fell. It was 
long grass ! Just then it seemed to grow 
upon my mind that we were down in 
the valley and out of range of the 
enemy. Then I glanced ahead, and 
not over a hundred metres away I 

93 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

saw the second company lying in the 
grass and watching us coining. As we 
neared, they shouted Uttle pleasantries 
at us and congratulated us upon our 
speed. 

"Why this unseemly haste?" one 
wants to know. 

"You go to the devil!" answers 
Haeffle. 

"Merci, mon ami I" retorts the first; 
"I have just come through his back 
kitchen." 

Counting my section, I missed Du- 
bois, Saint-Hilaire, and Schueli. Col- 
lette, Joe told me, was left on the hill. 

The company had lost two sergeants, 
one corporal, and thirteen men, coming 
down that short stretch I We mustered 
but forty-five men, all told. One, Ser- 
geant Terisien, had for four months 
commanded my section, the"Ameri- 
o4 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

can Section," but was transferred to 
the fourth section. From where we 
rested we could see him slowly de- 
scending the hill, bareheaded and with 
his right hand clasping his left shoul- 
der. He had been severely wounded in 
the head, and his left arm was nearly 
torn off at the shoulder. Poor devil I 
He was a good comrade and a good 
soldier. Just before the war broke out 
he had finished his third enhstment in 
the Legion, and was in fine for a dis- 
charge and pension when he died. 

Looking up the awful slope we had 
just descended, we could see the bodies 
of our comrades, torn and mangled and 
again and again kicked up into the air 
by the shells. For two days and nights 
the helKsh hail continued to beat upon 
that blood-soaked slope, until we final- 
ly captured the Butte de Souain and 
95 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

forced an entire regiment of Saxons to 
the left of the butte to capitulate. 

Again we assembled in column of 
fours, and this time began the climb 
uphill. Just then I happened to think 
of the blow I had received under the 
jaw, and feeUng of the spot, discovered 
a sUght wound under my left jaw-bone. 
Handing my rifle to a man, I pressed 
slightly upon the sore spot and pulled 
a steel splinter out of the wound. A 
very thin, long sliver of steel it was, 
half the diameter of a dime and not 
more than a dime's thickness, but an 
inch and a half long. The metal was 
still hot to the touch. The scratch con- 
tinued bleeding freely, and I did not 
bandage it at the time because I felt 
sure of needing my emergency dressing 
farther along. 

Up near the crest of the hill we 
96 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

halted in an angle of the woods and lay 
down alongside the One Hundred and 
Seventy-second Regiment of infantry. 
They had made the attack in this di- 
rection on the twenty-fifth, but had 
been severely checked at this point. 
Infantry and machine-gun jBre sounded 
very close, and lost bullets by the hun- 
dreds flicked through the branches 
overhead. The One Hundred and Sev- 
enty-second informed us that a bat- 
talion of the Premier Etranger had 
entered the forest and was at that 
moment storming a position to our 
immediate left. Through the trees 
showed lights, brighter than day, cast 
from hundreds of German magnesium 
candles shot into the air. 

Our officers were grouped with those 
of the other regiment, and after a very 
long conference they separated, each 

97 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

to his command. Our captain called 
the officers and subalterns of the com- 
pany together, and in terse sentences 
explained to us our positions and the 
object of the coming assault. It was 
to be a purely local affair, it seemed, 
and the point was the clearing of the 
enemy from the hill we were on. On a 
map drawn to scale he pointed out 
the lay of the land. 

It looked to me like a hard proposi- 
tion. Imagine to yourself a tooth- 
brush about a mile long and three 
eighths to one half mile wide. The 
back is formed by the summit of the 
hill, densely wooded, and the bristles 
are represented by four little ridges 
rising from the valley we had just 
crossed, each one crowned with strips 
of forest and uniting with the main 
ridges at right angles. Between each 
98 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

two lines of bristles are open spaces, 
from one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty metres wide. We of the second 
regiment were to deliver the assault 
parallel with the bristles and stretching 
from the crest down to the valley. 

The other column was to make a 
demonstration from our left, running a 
general course at right angles to ours. 
The time set was eight o'clock at night. 

Returning to our places, we informed 
the men of what they were in for. 
While we were talking we noticed a 
group of men come from the edge of 
the woods and form into company for- 
mation, and we could hear them an- 
SAver to the roll-call. I went over and 
peered at them. On their coat-collars 
I saw the gilt "No. i." It was the 
Premier Etranger. 

As the roll-call proceeded, I won- 

09 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

dered. The sergeant was deciphering 
with difficulty the names from his Ht- 
tle carnet, and response after response 
was, "Mort." Once in a while the an- 
swer changed to, *'Mort sur le champ 
d'honneur," or a brief "Tombe." 
There were twenty-two men in Hne, not 
counting the sergeant and a corporal, 
who in rear of the line supported him- 
self precariously on two rifles which 
served him as crutches. Two more 
groups appeared back of this one, and 
the same proceeding was repeated. As 
I stood near the second group I could 
just catch the responses of the surviv- 
ors. "Duvivier": "Present." — " Se- 
lonti": 'Tresent." — "Boismort": 
"Tombe." — "Herkis": "Mort." — 
"Carney": "Mort." — "MacDon- 
ald " : " Present." — " Farnsworth " : 
"Mort sur le champ d'honneur," re- 

I oo 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

sponded MacDonald. Several of the 
men I had known, Farnsworth among 
them. One officer, a second-heutenant, 
commanded the remains of the battal- 
ion. Seven hundred and fifty men, he 
informed me, had gone in an hour ago, 
and less than two hundred came back. 

"Ah, mon ami," he told me, "c'est 
bien chaud dans le bois." 

Quietly they turned into column of 
fours and disappeared in the darkness. 
Their attack had failed. Owing to the 
protection afforded by the trees, our 
aerial scouts had failed to gather defi- 
nite information of the defenses con- 
structed in the forest, and owing also 
to the same cause, our previous bom- 
bardment had been ineffective. 

It was our job to remedy this. One 
battalion of the One Hundred and Sev- 
enty-second was detached and placed 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

in line with us, and at 8 p.m. sharp 
the commandant's whistle sounded, 
echoed by that of our captain. 

Quietly we lined up at the edge of 
the forest, shoulder to shoulder, bayo- 
nets fixed. Quietly each corporal exam- 
ined the rifles of his men, inspected the 
magazines, and saw that each chamber 
also held a cartridge with firing-pin 
down. As silently as possible we en- 
tered between the trees and carefully 
kept in touch with each other. It was 
dark in there, and we had moved along 
some little distance before our eyes 
were used to the blackness. As I picked 
my steps I prepared myself for the 
shock every man experiences at the 
first sound of a volley. Twice I fell 
down into shell-holes and cursed my 
clumsiness and that of some other fel- 
lows to my right. " The ' Dutch ' must 

102 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

be asleep," I thought, "or else they 
beat it." Hopefully, the latter! 

We were approaching the farther 
edge of the "toothbrush bristles," and 
breathlessly we halted at the edge of 
the little open space before us. About 
eighty metres across loomed the black 
line of another "row of bristles." I 
wondered. 

The captain and second section to 
our right moved on and we kept in line, 
still slowly and cautiously, carefully 
putting one foot before the other. Sud- 
denly from the darkness in front of us 
came four or five heavy reports like the 
noise of a shotgun, followed by a long 
hiss. Into the air streamed trails of 
sparks. Above our heads the hiss 
ended with a sharp crack, and every- 
thing stood revealed as though it were 
broad dayhght. 

I o3 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

At the first crash, the major, the cap- 
tains — everybody, it seemed to me — 
yelled at the same time, "En avant! 
Pas de charge!" — and in full run, 
with fixed bayonets, we flew across the 
meadow. As we neared the woods we 
were met by solid sheets of steel balls. 
Roar upon roar came from the forest; 
the volleys came too fast, it shot into 
my mind, to be well aimed. Then 
something hit me on the chest and I 
fell sprawhng. Barbed wire! Every- 
body seemed to be on the ground at 
once, crawling, pushing, struggling 
through. My rifle was lost and I 
grasped my parabellum. It was a 
German weapon, German charges, 
German cartridges. This time the Ger- 
mans were to get a taste of their own 
medicine, I thought. Lying on my 
back, I wormed through the wire, 

I o4 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

butting into the men in front of me 
and getting kicked in the head by 
Mettayer. As I crawled I could hear 
the ping, ping, of balls striking the 
wire, and the shrill moan as they 
glanced off and continued on their 
flight. 

Putting out my hand, I felt loose dirt, 
and, lying flat, peered over the par- 
apet. " Nobody home," I thought; and 
then I saw one of the CoUette brothers 
in the trench come running toward me 
and ahead of him a burly Boche. I 
saw Joe make a one-handed lunge with 
the rifle, and saw the bayonet show 
fully a foot in front of the German's 
chest. 

Re-forming, we advanced toward the 
farther fringe of the little forest. Half- 
way through the trees we lay down flat 
on our stomachs, rifle in right hand, 

io5 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and slowly, very slowly, wormed our 
way past the trees into the opening be- 
tween us and our goal. Every man had 
left his knapsack in front or else hang- 
ing on the barbed wire, and we were in 
good shape for the work that lay ahead. 
But the sections and companies were 
inextricably mixed. On one side of me 
crawled a lieutenant of the One Hun- 
dred and Seventy-second, and on the 
other a private I had never seen before. 
Still we were all in Une, and when 
some one shouted, "Feu de quatre car- 
touches!" we fired four rounds, and 
after the command all crawled again a 
few paces nearer. 

Several times we halted to fire, aim- 
ing at the sheets of flame spurting to- 
ward us. Over the Germans floated 
several parachute magnesium rockets, 
sent up by our own men, giving a vivid 

io6 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

light and enabling us to shoot with fair 
accuracy. I think now that the Ger- 
man fire was too high. Anyway, I did 
not notice any one in my immediate 
vicinity getting hit. Though our prog- 
ress was slow, we finally arrived at the 
main wire entanglement. 

All corporals in the French army 
carry wire-nippers, and it was our cor- 
poral's business to open a way through 
the entanglement. Several men to my 
right, I could see one, — he looked like 
Mettayer, — lying flat on his back and, 
nippers in hand, snipping away at the 
wire overhead, while all of us behind 
kept up a murderous and constant fire 
at the enemy. Mingled with the roar 
of the rifles came the stuttering rattle 
of the machine guns, at moments 
drowned by the crash of hand-gre- 
nades. Our grenadiers had rather poor 
107 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

success with their missiles, however, 
most of them hitting trees in front of 
the trench. The heutenant on my left 
had four grenades. I could see him 
plainly. With one in his hand, he 
crawled close to the wire, rolled on his 
back, rested an instant with arms ex- 
tended, both hands grasping the gre- 
nade, then suddenly he doubled for- 
ward and back and sent the bomb 
flying over his head. For two — three 
seconds, — it seemed longer at the time, 
— we listened, and then came the roar 
of the explosion. He smiled and nodded 
to me, and again went through the 
same manoeuvre. 

In the mean time I kept my parabel- 
lum going. I had nine magazines 
loaded with dum-dum balls I had taken 
from some dead Germans, and I dis- 
tributed the balls impartially between 

io8 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

three creneaux in front of me. On my 
right, men were surging through several 
breaks in the wire. Swiftly I rolled 
over and over toward the free lane and 
went through with a rush. The com- 
bat had degenerated into a hand-gre- 
nade affair. Our grenadiers crawled 
alongside the parapet and every so 
often tossed one of their missiles into 
it, while the others, shooting over their 
heads, potted the Germans as they ran 
to rear. 

Suddenly the fusillade ceased, and 
with a crash, it seemed, silence and 
darkness descended upon us. The sud- 
den cessation of the terrific rifle firing 
and of the constant rattling of the 
machine guns struck one Hke a blow. 
Sergeant Altoffer brought me some in- 
formation about one of my men, and 
almost angrily I asked him not to 

loo 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

shout! "I'm not deaf yet," I assured 
him. "Mon vieux," he raged, ''it's 
you who are shouting I" 

I realized my fault and apologized 
and in return accepted a drink of wine 
from his canteen. 

Finding the captain, we received the 
order to assemble the men and main- 
tain the trench, and after much search- 
ing I found a few men of the section. 
The Httle scrap had cost the first sec- 
tion three more men. Soubiron, Dowd, 
and Zinn were wounded and sent to the 
rear. The One Hundred and Seventy- 
second sent a patrol toward the far- 
thest, the last, bristle of the toothbrush, 
with the order to reconnoiter thor- 
oughly. An hour passed and they had 
not returned. Twenty minutes more 
went by and still no patrol. Rather 
curious, we thought. No rifle-shots had 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

come from that direction nor any noise 
such as would be heard during a com- 
bat with the bayonet. The command- 
ant's patience gave way and our cap- 
tain received the order to send another 
patrol. He picked me and I chose King, 
Delpeuch, and Birchler. All three had 
automatics, King a parabellum, Del- 
peuch and Birchler, Brownings. They 
left their rifles, bayonets, and cartridge- 
boxes behind and in Indian file fol- 
lowed me at a full run in an oblique 
direction past the front of the company 
and, when halfway across the clearing, 
following my example, feU flat on the 
ground. We rested awhile to regain 
our wind and then began to sHde on 
our stomachs at right angles to our first 
course. 

We were extremely careful to re- 
main silent. Every little branch and 
III 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

twig we moved carefully out of our 
way; with one hand extended we felt 
of the ground before us as we hitched 
ourselves along. So silent was our prog- 
ress that several times I felt in doubt 
about any one being behind me and 
rested motionless until I felt the touch 
of Delpeuch's hand upon my foot. After 
what seemed twenty minutes, we again 
changed direction, this time straight 
toward the trees looming close to us. 
We arrived abreast of the first row of 
trees, and, lying still as death, hstened 
for sounds of the enemy. All was abso- 
lutely quiet; only the branches rustled 
overhead in a Hght breeze. A long time 
we lay there but heard no sound. We 
began to feel somewhat creepy, and I 
was tempted to pull my pistol and let 
nine shots rip into the damnable still- 
ness before us. However, I refrained, 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and, touching my neighbor, started 
crawHng along the edge of the wood. 
Extreme care was necessary, owing to 
the numberless branches Uttering the 
ground. The sweat was rolHng down 
my face. 

Again we listened, and again we were 
baffled by that silence. I was angry 
then and started to crawl between the 
trees. A tiny sound of metal scratch- 
ing upon metal and I almost sank into 
the ground! Quickly I felt reassured. 
It was my helmet touching a strand of 
barbed wire. Still no sound ! 

Boldly we rose and, standing behind 
trees, scanned the darkness. Over to 
our right we saw a glimmer of light, 
and, walking this time, putting one 
foot carefully before the other, we 
moved in that direction. When op- 
posite we halted and — I swore. From 

ii3 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the supposed trench of the enemy 
came the hoarse sound of an appar- 
ently drunken man singing the cftan- 
5on *'La Riviera." Another voice of- 
fered a toast to "La Legion." 

Carelessly we made our way through 
the barbed wire, crawling under and 
stepping over the strands, jumped 
over a ditch and looked down into 
what seemed to be an underground pal- 
ace. There they were — the six men of 
the One Hundred and Seventy-second 
— three of them lying stiff and stark 
on benches, utterly drunk. Two were 
standing up disputing, and the singer 
sat in an armchair, holding a long- 
stemmed glass in his hand. Close by 
him were several unopened bottles of 
champagne upon the table. Many 
empty bottles littered the floor. The 
singer welcomed us with a shout and 
ii4 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

an open hand, to which we, however, 
did not immediately respond. The 
heartbreaking work while approaching 
this place rankled in our mind. The 
sergeant and corporal were too drunk 
to be of any help, while two of the men 
were crying, locked in each others' 
arms. Another was asleep, and our 
friend the singer absolutely refused to 
budge. So, after I had stowed two bot- 
tles inside my shirt (an example punc- 
tiliously followed by the others), we 
returned. 

Leaving Birchler at the wire, I 
placed King in the middle of the clear- 
ing and Delpeuch near the edge of the 
wood held by us, and then reported. 
The captain passed the word along to 
the major, and on the instant we were 
ordered to fall in, and in column of 
two marched over to the abandoned 

ii5 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

trench, following the line marked by 
my men. 

As we entered and disposed our- 
selves therein, I noticed all the officers, 
one after the other, disappear in the 
palace. Another patrol was sent out 
by our company, and, after ranging the 
country in our front, it returned safely. 
That night it happened to be the sec- 
ond company's turn to mount outposts, 
and we could see six groups of men, one 
corporal and five men in each, march 
out into the night, and somewhere, 
each in some favorable spot, they 
placed themselves at a distance of 
about one hundred metres away, to 
watch, while we slept the sleep of the 
just. 



VIII 

Day came, and with it the corvee 
carrying hot coffee and bread. After 
breakfast another corvee was sent after 
picks and shovels, and the men were 
set to work remodehng the trench, 
shifting the parapet to the other side, 
building Uttle outpost trenches and 
setting barbed wire. The latter job 
was done in a wonderfully short time, 
thanks to German thoroughness, since 
for the stakes to which the wire is tied 
the Boches had substituted soft iron 
rods, three quarters of an inch thick, 
twisted five times in the shape of a 
great corkscrew. This screw twisted 
into the ground exactly hke a cork- 
puller into a cork. The straight part of 
117 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

the rod, being twisted upon itself down 
and up again every ten inches, formed 
six or seven small round loops in a 
height of about five feet. Into these 
eyes the barbed wire was laid and sol- 
idly secured with short lengths of ty- 
ing wire. First cutting the tying wire, 
we lifted the barbed wire out of the 
eyes, shoved a small stick through one 
and, turning the rod with the leverage 
of the stick, unscrewed it out of the 
ground and then reversing the process 
screwed it in again. The advantage of 
this rod is obvious. When a shell falls 
amidst this wire protection, the rods 
are bent and twisted, but unless broken 
off short they always support the wire, 
and even after a severe bombardment 
present a serious obstacle to the as- 
saulters. In such cases wooden posts 
are blown to smithereens by the shells, 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

and when broken off let the wire fall 
flat to the ground. 

As I was walking up and down, 
watching the work, I noticed a large 
box, resting bottom up, in a deep hole 
opening from the trench. Dragging the 
box out and turning it over, I experi- 
enced a sudden flutter of the heart. 
There, before my astonished eyes, rest- 
ing upon a little platform of boards, 
stood a neat little centrifugal pump 
painted green and on the base of it in 
raised iron letters I read the words 
*' Byron Jackson, San Francisco." I 
felt queer at the stomach for an in- 
stant. San Francisco! my home town! 
Before my eyes passed pictures of Mar- 
ket Street and the "Park." In fancy I 
was one of the Sunday crowd at the 
Cliff House. How could this pump 
have got so far from home? Many 
119 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

times I had passed the very place where 
it was made. How, I wonder, did the 
Boche get this pmnp? Before the war 
or through Holland? A California- 
built pump to clean water out of Ger- 
man trenches, in France ! It was aston- 
ishing! With something like reverence 
I put the pump back again and, going 
to my place in the trench, dug out one 
of my bottles of champagne and stood 
treat to the crowd. Somehow, I felt 
almost happy. 

As I continued my rounds I came 
upon a man sitting on the edge of the 
ditch surrounded by naked branches, 
busy cutting them into two-foot 
lengths and tying them together in the 
shape of a "cross." I asked him how 
many he was making, and he told me 
that he expected to work all day to 
supply the crosses needed along one 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

battalion front. French and German 
were treated alike, he assured me. 
There was absolutely no difTerence in 
the size of the crosses. 

As we worked, soup arrived, and 
when that was disposed of, the men 
rested for some hours. We were abso- 
lutely unmolested except by our offi- 
cers. 

But at one o'clock that night we 
were again assembled in marching rig, 
each man carrying an extra pick or 
shovel, and we marched along parallel 
with our trench to the summit of the 
butte. There we installed ourselves in 
the main line out of which the Ger- 
mans were driven by the One Hundred 
and Seventy-second. Things came 
easy now. There was no work of any 
kind to be done, and quickly we found 
some dry wood, built small fires and 

12 1 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

with the material found in dugouts 
brewed some really delightful bever- 
ages. Mine was a mixture of wine and 
water out of Haeffle's canteen, judi- 
ciously blended with chocolate. 

The weather was delightful and we 
spent the afternoon lying in sunny 
spots, shifting once in a while out of 
the encroaching shade into the warm 
rays. We had no idea where the Ger- 
mans were, — somewhere in front, of 
course, but just how far or how near 
mattered little to us. Anyway, the 
One Hundred and Seventy-second 
were fully forty metres nearer to them 
than we were, and we could see and 
hear the first-line troops picking and 
shoveling their way into the ground. 

Little King was, as usual, making 
the round of the company, trying to 
find some one to build a fire and get 

12 2 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

water if he, King, would furnish the 
chocolate. He found no takers and 
soon he laid himself down, muttering 
about the laziness of the outfit. 

Just as we were dozing deliciously, 
an agonized yell brought every sol- 
dier to his feet. Rushing toward the 
cry, I found a man sitting on the 
ground, holding his leg below the knee 
with both hands and moaning as he 
rocked back and forth. " Je suis blesse I 
Je suis blesse!" Brushing his hands 
aside I examined his limb. There was 
no blood. I took off the leg-band, rolled 
up his trousers, and discovered no sign 
of a wound. I asked the man again 
where the wound was, and he passed 
his hand over a small red spot on his 
shin. Just then another man picked 
up a small piece of shell, and then the 
explanation dawned upon me. The 

ia3 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

Germans were shooting at our planes 
straight above us; a bit of shell had 
come down and hit om* sleeper on the 
shin-bone. Amid a gale of laughter he 
limped away to a more sympathetic 
audience. Several more pieces of iron 
fell near us. Some fragments were no 
joking matter, being the entire rear end 
of three-inch shells weighing, I should 
think, fully seven pounds. 

At 4 P.M. the soup corvee arrived. 
Besides the usual soup we had roast 
mutton, one small slice per man, and a 
mixture of white beans, rice, and string 
beans. There was coffee, and one cup 
of wine per man, and, best of all, to- 
bacco. As we munched our food our 
attention was attracted to the sky 
above by an intense cannonade direct- 
ed against several of our aeroplanes 
sailing east. As we looked, more and 
124 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

more of our war-birds appeared. Whip- 
ping out my glasses, I counted fifty-two 
machines. Another man counted sixty. 
Haeffle had it a hundred. The official 
report next day stated fifty-nine. They 
were flying very high and in very open 
formation, winging due east. The 
shells were breaking ahead of them and 
between them. The heaven was stud- 
ded with hundreds upon hundreds of 
beautiful little round grayish clouds, 
each one the nimbus of a bursting shell. 
With my prismatics glued to my eyes 
I watched closely for one falling bird. 
Though it seemed incredible at the 
moment, not one faltered or turned 
back. Due east they steered, into the 
red painted sky. For several minutes 
after they had sailed out of my sight I 
could still hear the roar of the guns. 
Only one machine, the official report 

125 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

said, was shot down, and that one fell 
on the return trip. 

Just before night fell, we all set to 
work cutting pine branches, and with 
the tips prepared soft beds for our- 
selves. Sentries were placed, one man 
per section, and we laid ourselves down 
to sleep. The night passed quietly; 
again the day started with the usual 
hot coffee and bread. Soup and stew 
at 10 A.M., and the same again at 4 p-m. 
One more quiet night and again the 
following day. We were becoming 
somewhat restless with the monotony 
but were cheered by the captain. That 
night, he told us, we should return to 
Suippes and there we should re-form 
the regiment and rest. The programme 
sounded good, but I felt very doubtful, 
so many times we had heard the same 
tale and so many times we had been 
126 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

disappointed. Each day the corvees 
had brought the same news from the 
kitchen. At least twenty times differ- 
ent telephonists and agents de liaison 
had brought the familiar story. The 
soup corvees assured us that the drivers 
of the rolling kitchens had orders to 
hitch up and pull out toward Souain 
and Suippes. The telephonists had hs- 
tened to the order transmitted over 
the wires. The agents de liaison had 
overheard the commandant telling 
other officers that he had received 
marching orders and, ''Ma foil each 
time each one was wrong!" So after 
all, I was not much disappointed when 
the order came to unmake the sacks. 

We stayed that night and all that 

day, and when the order to march the 

following evening came, all of us were 

surprised, including the captain. I was 

127 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

with the One Hundred and Seventy- 
second at the time, having some fun 
with a Httle Belgian. I had come upon 
him in the dark and had watched him 
in growing wonder at his actions. There 
the Httle fellow was, stamping up and 
down, every so often stopping, shaking 
clenched fists in the air, and spouting 
curses. I asked him what was the mat- 
ter. *'Rien, mon sergent," he replied. 
"Je m 'excite." "Pourquoi?" I de- 
manded. "Ah," he told me, ''look," 
— pointing out toward the German 
line, — "out there lies my friend, dead, 
with three pounds of my chocolate in 
his musette, and when I'm good and 
mad, I'm going out to get it!" I 
hope he got it! 

That night at seven o'clock we left 
the hill, marched through Souain four 
miles to Suippes and sixteen miles far- 
128 



A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION 

ther on, at Saint-Hilaire, we camped. 
A total of twenty-six miles. 

At Suippes the regiment passed in 
parade march before some officer of the 
Etat-Major, and we were counted: — 
eight hundred and fifty-two in the en- 
tire regiment, out of thirty-two hun- 
dred who entered the attack on the 
25th of September. 



THE END 



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